“Let us pass through your country. We will stay on the main road; we will not turn aside to the right or to the left.

And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?

So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left.

Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors,

And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.”

Not Because of Israel’s Righteousness

Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky.

After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you.

It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them.

Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Be careful to obey all these regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

because you obey the Lord your God by keeping all his commands that I am giving you today and doing what is right in his eyes.

Act according to whatever they teach you and the decisions they give you. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or to the left.

and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.

and you will have purged from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

The Right of the Firstborn

If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love,

when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love.

He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.

Return their cloak by sunset so that your neighbor may sleep in it. Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the Lord your God.

Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.

They will summon peoples to the mountain and there offer the sacrifices of the righteous; they will feast on the abundance of the seas, on the treasures hidden in the sand.”

He chose the best land for himself; the leader’s portion was kept for him. When the heads of the people assembled, he carried out the Lord’s righteous will, and his judgments concerning Israel.”